


we'd rather die than do it your way.

by runandremember



Category: Final Fantasy, Final Fantasy XII
Genre: F/M, First Meeting, yay
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-25
Updated: 2013-08-25
Packaged: 2017-12-24 14:59:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,767
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/941334
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/runandremember/pseuds/runandremember
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>From then on, that's what he will tell her everytime she complains about it. The best thing in his entire life happened while he's been drinking. She'll usually stop scolding him then.</p>
            </blockquote>





	we'd rather die than do it your way.

**Author's Note:**

> I just love first meeting fics for these two, ok. Had some difficulties because I'm not playing the game these days and I was kinda lost with town names and... stuff. But Natascha motivated me and I kinda... sorta... promised to try.  
> Actually we wanted to have something that shows parts of the relationship they keep hinting at in the game, but we never get to see. (coughs) No one knows men then Fran does (coughs) She doesn't like handcuffs (coughs) porn (coughs) but yeah... where did it get me... first meeting fic. My subconscious seems to always duck me out of writing porn. Hehe.

They meet for the first time in an old dusty cell of the Rabanastre undergrounds. 

 

He didn't even do anything this time, he's just been drinking. And it happened.

From then on, that's what he'll tell her everytime she complains about it. The best thing in his entire life happened while he's been drinking. She'll usually stop scolding him then.

Guards found him. Somebody recognized him. Because it's just his luck and somebody always does these days. They cuffed him and threw him underground for the evening. And he was drunk. Wouldn't have happened otherwise, of course.

He just sits there, daydreaming, contemplating on how to get out when the right time comes, occassionally pulling at his handcuffs and waiting for the night. Whenever that might be since there's barely any light reaching the cellblock. 

He just sits there when a bunch of men throw her in.  
She's put up a fight, he can tell. She still is. She tries kicking the guard with all that little strength she still got before he strucks her down and closes the door. Unconscious, she falls to the ground, bruised, battered and tied wrists behind her back.  
It's not until then that he stops blatantly staring at her and notices her ears.  
What is a Viera doing here? He's never seen one before, but he doesn't need to to know that she absolutely doesn't belong here. Or elsewhere. As far as he knows their kind is never leaving their sacred forest.  
A special one, then. 

 

After the guard currently watching them falls asleep at his place, it still takes him almost an hour to get out of his handcuffs. He immediately regrets getting up too fast and drops down again, wincing.  
This time, he gets up slower, carefully putting weight on his legs and sneaks closer to her body.

Just as he rounds her and reaches for her hands to untie the ropes, it's too late when he notices one of her ears twitch. Pain shoots through him and he sinks down to his knees.  
Too startled because he thought she was still unconscious, but just now she proved the opposite by almost kicking him in the balls, he doesn't bother with any form of defense or counterattack as she keeps throwing herself at him like a wounded animal.

When he left his current home this afternoon he certainly didn't plan on ending up on the ground with a Viera on top of him. Well. 

She holds him down to the ground using her shoulder and weight. He feels her laboured breath brush his ear.

"What do you want, Hume", she all but snarls at him.

He can't help but smile at that, all the while pondering between fearing for his life and really starting to like her.

"Name's Balthier. Nice to meet you, too“, he snorts. „Even though I wish these would be better circumstan-"

"I ask you again: What do you want from me."

"Well, I was just about to free you and get the hell out of here, but then you decided to start abusing me."

"... why."

"Why you attacked me? Wouldn't you know."

She huffs. "Why didn't you just get out of here and left me, why did you stop for me."

He doesn't answer for a while, just keeps watching the sleeping guard for a bit. He really doesn't know why he did, he usually never stops for anybody else. Just keeping himself alive is difficult enough at times.  
But there she is and in these barely there shine of light through some bars at the ceiling, she is the most beautiful thing he has ever seen. Even with dirt and mud on the little bits of armour she's wearing, streams from where they hit her and blood smeared across her cheek, he finds himself staring at her yet again.

"I'm the Leading Man of this story“, he murmurs back. „Now, let me, before that bastard over there wakes up again."

The Viera nods in defeat as he throws his arms round her slender form in a so out of place embrace to pull her up with him. All the while he's struggling to untie the ropes holding her wrists together, she doesn't say a word.

"There you go, love", he whispers against her shoulder. Her soft skin smells of mouldy dungeons and dust, but also of adventure and a dark forest.  
She pulls back and rubs her wrists soothingly. "Thank you." They just stare at each other then, her gaze is questioning and confused and one of her ears twitches nervously. „... Balthier.“  
It's visible in her face just how much overcoming it cost her and how odd it must feel for her to address him with his proper name. He gulps at that because only he knows how very not this name is, selfmade and based of lies.

He doesn't know a thing about her tribe. She knows nothing of the image of a man he's hiding behind and the lies of his past he buried. And still he just wants to keep her with him always and see what she does next because he has not a single idea. He wants her to know the things about him he never told anyone and watch her reaction and in return she's to tell him what she's doing out of her forest. Or what she's done to end up here with him, for instance.  
He is a thief and she is beautiful and a mystery and something he's never seen before. And he has always been curious.

 

Her wrist is tiny enough to fit through the bars, so it's almost surprisingly easy to get the keys and themselves out of the cell.  
With a smirk he picks up the rope they used to chain her and binds together the legs of the still snoring guard. No wonder their cells are always empty, he thinks.

When he turns around, she isn't waiting for him. Instead she roams the tiny room, obviously searching for something. She notices his gaze on her and looks at him. Gesticulating wildly he mouths a "What the hell are you doing?" and hopes she understands. Surprisingly, she does and mouths back what he guesses is a "Trust me?". Even though he gets more confused by the second he finds himself nodding. Why is he doing that again?

Then, he watches her take a deep breath, brace herself and kick in the wooden door in the corner.  
He almost yelps in shock and is moments from striding towards her, grabbing her and running the hell out of there, when she actually flashes a wicked grin at him and vanishes in the little storage room.  
He is startled speechless. Again.

 

A choking sound next to him jolts him out of his thoughts and back to reality. The guard, he's forgotten the guard. He doesn't have a weapon with him and the man is like two heads bigger than him and huge. So no hand to hand combat either.  
The man opens his eyes and recognizes him in an instant. Just as Balthier is about to get really nervous and the guard reaches for his sword he finds himself up the wall with an arrow dangerously close to his throat.

"I'd leave that where it was, scum."  
Her voice drips with sweetness and danger as she draws the bow closer to herself, ready to let the arrow go any moment.  
It's not her own one and her hands tremble lightly, but still she aims at the man as if she'd been doing this all her life. Ready, aim, fire. So unusual for her kind again. 

In the corner of her eye, she shoots him a look and he swears he's seen her smile there and the thief finds his voice again.  
"I hope you slept well."

The guard grunts and tries to move but soon gets stilled by a dangerous creak of the bow. Balthier laughs, folds his arms in front of his chest and bows down his head to him a little. His voice is a threatening whisper.

"Easy there, mate. I'd introduce you to my friend, but you seem already acquainted and you know... we're a bit on the run", he chuckles and the woman huffs in impatient annoyance.

"Alright, alright. Now, then. You are gonna stay here like the good boy you are and goodbye."

The Viera nods at him and they take a few steps back. She is about to turn around the corner and find a way out of the dungeons when he takes one of her arrows and rams it into the side of the guard. "And that's for hitting her." 

She watches him with an unreadable expression as they flee through the interlaced corridors in a haste. Her impossibly high heels clicking on the stones and their ragged breathing are the only sounds in the abandoned alleys.

 

Their journey gets stopped again by a group of guards crossing their way. 

"Balthier!" The leader shouts his name and points at him. "You're arrested for treason against the High Judges and thievery!"

She comes to an halt next to him and draws her weapon.

"Suppose these are also friends of yours?"

"Can't help I'm that popular, dear."

She snorts. "Bet you are." 

Before anyone of them can even draw their weapons she's killed at least two of them. The remaining ones get knocked out by him or wiped out by her seconds after. 

 

Finally, they climb up the stairs and reach the surface. They find themselves in a small lane at the edge of Rabanastre. The sky's clear and full of bright stars, a perfect night to fly.  
He breathes in deeply and inhales the rich air.

"... I'm Fran, by the way."  
He stops looking at the sky then and watches her instead, but her head is still up.

Shouts and yells, that keep getting nearer, reach their ears and she flinches.

A smile tugs at the corner of his lips as he holds out his hand for her.  
"Trust me, Fran?"

She looks down at his palm, then up to his face again. The shouts get louder and her ears quirk nervously.

She grew up to hate humans because she was told they would keep on destroying everything her tribe held dear. She grew up with mistrust and suspicion against everything that didn't come from the forest. And still she trusts that stranger in an instant, then. He wouldn't even have had to ask.

"I... think so", she mumbles and puts her smaller hand in his.

 

And they run.


End file.
